Walk with the Dead
by Clair-Obscur
Summary: Eliza Harper’s brother died a month ago, but instead of eternally resting, her brother is now among many American teens living after death. In the GD universe, but with different character in the same time. I'm playing in Daniel Water's sandbox.
1. Prologue

**AN: the prologue is in a sort of in a purgatory state at the moment. I am completely rewriting it but am sort of blocked at the moment so I am leaving this version up for the time being. If have come here to read the story go ahead and skip to the next chapter. All this information is there and a little extra. Sorry for the inconvenience. I promise the next chapter is a lot better than this. **

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Prologue

My brother took a lethal dose of pain killers a month ago. And by some "miracle" (according to my mother) he came back. Everybody already knows about the so called "living impaired" teens so this wasn't some huge surprise to the doctors after his heart stopped beating and he stood up and walked away. They are everywhere, except in Winamac, Indiana. At least not until Christopher. I've seen them on the news so many times but really didn't put much thought into it. I am 15 years old and never really consider having to deal with death at my age unless it was a grandparent or a distant relative I never met. No one knows why they come back, but everyone knows that there is a chance that a teenager will if you die these days. I mean, he knew what would happen or at least I assume he understood, but that didn't stop him. Now he is among the living dead and ruining my life.

I know my parents are trying to prove to this town that my brother is still the same boy he was before, but they aren't convincing anybody. No one cares because he is no longer their white knight. If he hadn't tried (and failed I might add) to kill himself, he would still be Winamac High's star basketball player. He would be accepting his scholarship to Indiana University and preparing to move to Bloomington in the summer leaving me his room in the basement. However, because of his self-inflicted living deadness his skills on the basketball court are less than stellar and the prejudice of the town needed no other excuse to not let him back on the team after try outs.

My parents have always looked at him as their golden child and maybe even more so now that he is their "miracle boy" and now they treat him like he is some victim of some horribly inflicted disease. I know better, to me he is a coward. I will never understand what he was thinking that night and to be honest I really don't feel like asking. He wouldn't answer me. It's not my business, and it's not like he wanted my help before he decided that he wanted to join the Zombies. (Oops. . . I meant to say Living impaired.)

Don't get me wrong, I am not criticizing the all living impaired kids, I just wish my brother didn't have to become one of them. Because of him, I am now a social leper. My old friends are terrified of him or just plain hate him. Nobody wants to hang out with the girl with a living dead brother and their parents have forbidden their kids to come anywhere near me; as if I am going to spread this to their kids or something. I'm not sure if they would have been so opposed to my brother if he had not inflicted this on himself, but it's not like they would have welcomed him with open arms if it had been a car accident or illness. It doesn't matter though the whole family is still suffering because of him. He doesn't have all the side effects most kids have. He still looks the same. His skin is a little paler, but he was always very pale to go along with his ginger hair. Like me, his skin used to burn so easily in the sunlight and the only colors our skin changes to is red or freckled. I think that's what makes it easier. He doesn't really look dead like a lot of the other dead kids I have seen. He's just dead.

I'm not saying that this whole thing doesn't suck for him. He lost his friends, he can't play basketball, and since he is no longer living he is without the rights most living people take for granted. He no longer has a driver's license because dead kids supposedly cannot drive. I've heard of horrible things happening to living impaired and no one ever gets charged with anything more than a misdemeanor for abusing a corpse. Sometimes charges aren't even filed because they feel that no damage has been done. It's scary and that is part of the reason that my parents have imprisoned me and my brother to the house except for family outings.

Tomorrow we have to go back to school.


	2. My Brother the Corpse

**AN: I nearly rewrote this chapter adding in the prolouge and a few bits that were going to be added later, but I changed my mind and figured they fit better back here. I promise I will not do this a lot. I just felt that my prologue was a waste of space and ineffective and I have a much better thing rolling for it at the moment. Thank you for stopping by and reading. I hope you enjoy. **

Soundtrack:

"What it Means to Be Alone" by The Dear Hunter

"Life on Mars" by David Bowie

"We will become Silhouettes" by Postal Service

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Chapter 1

My Brother the Corpse

Eliza Harper sats on the end of her bed tugging at the loose threads at the hem of her jean skirt and tried to muster up the courage to leave her bedroom. She has spent the better half of the last week trying to convince her parents of to find some alternative to returning to herto public high school. Her mother's footsteps announce the inevitable: she has to leave her room and face the harsh reality of life after her brother's deathshe had to face the world and put her brave face on.

"I'm not going to school," she calls to her mother before she could knock hoping against all hope that her refusal would be enough.

"Yes you are, even if I have to drag you there myself," her mom say through the closed door.

"Can't you just home school me?"

"Eliza! You know why you have to go to school. I'm sick and tired of having to repeat the same argument every day. It's going to be hard, but we have to return to business as usual," she says said with a sigh. Eliza can could only imagine what her mother's face lookeds like after that sighn.

Since her brother returnedcame back, her mother only hasd two facial expressionses. One which Eliza calls "the Christopher face" which can only be described as the face of pure joy consisting withof a huge toothy smile and eyes that look glassy and on the verge of tears. This was had not always the face that was associated with her brother, but everything has changed. The other, which she knows knew her mother is was wearing nowat the moment, she calleds "the Eliza face". This face is tense with a deep creaseds in the forehead and a mouth pursed into a thin line. This face was also not as new, but it used to only be seen when Eliza had done something to get herself into trouble.

"I don't want to do this anymore mom," Eliza says feeling her resistance failing. "It's not fair. I don't want to have to go through this, I just want to be normal."

"We have to show this town that we are the same family we used to be," her mother said weakly.

Eliza sighed knowing that the battle was lost and there was no reason to push her mother further today. She knows knew her mother blameds herself sometimes for what happened to Christopher. It is what parents do when bad things happen to their children, but now it must be even harder since some teenagers who die do not stay that way. Chris was the first in the northern western corner of Indiana which means the first in Winamac. It all began when he injured his knee last year had taken him off the basketball team he began to distance himself from the rest of the world retreating into his bedroom at night and not taking calls from any of his friends. When summer arrived he went into surgery to repair the damage. The first morning he was home Eliza was sent to his room to give him breakfast and to make sure he took his medicine. She will never forget the scene she saw when that door opened.

Eliza slid on her sneakers and collected a few pens and a notebook and shoved them into her bag. With one last look around her room she slipped on her hoodie and paused at the door. Two more years she thought and took a deep breath and left her room. She walked past her mother without making eye contact to avoidavoiding her mother's sad eyes. She walked past Chris's bedroom and fought back the regular heave from her stomach. Every time she saw his door she was brought back to the image of his body sprawled out on the floor cold and motionless in his own vomit with the empty medicine bottle lying on his desk. She will never forgive him for that image that had been permanently seared into her memory.

Christopher was already waiting for her on the front porch. Since he cannot drive they have to walk the three blocks to school together because her parents believed it to be safer than walking alone. Eliza walked past him keeping her eyes forward trying to control her nerves.

"Are you ready for this?" Christopher asked slowly.

"Whatever, Chris," Eliza replied. Their limited communication made even a trivial question like this feel awkward and painful.

She Eliza was not in the slightest ready for whatever hell she was walking into. She did not want her voice to give away her emotions and so she pulled her head phones out of her back and pretended to listen to music. She snuck a peek over her shoulder at her brother. She was still getting used to the fact that he no longer breathed and thhis haunting vacant look that he always worethat he wore. His face jaw was tense but his eyes were completely vacant and . unfocused just like a corpse. A chill ran up her spine as she remembered the old smile he used to always wear and then the corpse lying on his bedroom floor. He stomach gave a lurch and her breakfast ended up in someone's front yard. She straitened herself out refusing to give Chris a chance to speak again.

She began to feel light headed as she closed the distance between herself and her high school. She felt as though her stomach was swelling to twice its normal size as the old brick building was within view.

This was going to go down as one of the top ten worst days of my life, she thought as the hushed voices from the students congregating in the parking lot reached her ears. She felt the panic rush through her body making it feel weak and heavy as she saw everyone's eyes wide and staring. Even the teachers were peeking out of the classroom windows trying to be discrete, but failing miserably. HerShe panic became pure torment when she noticed her Angela, her best friend from since pre-school, laughing with the ass clowns who were covering their heads mockingly begging Christopher to not eat their brains. These used to be her friends and in any other situation they would have stood up for her but now theyre were the people hurting her the most. She saw several of her old friends sitting on the stairs staring at Christopher and the look on their faces was unmistakable terror. Eliza turned to lookaround slightly to see what at his face looked like only to see the same tensed jaw and vacant eyes. She could not help but wonder what he was thinking or was his mind as empty as his eyes.

Upon entering the building all the faculty in the lobby suddenly appeared to have remembered something they had to do. Looking busy so they did not appear to be as immature as the students, but they were not fooling Eliza, they were just as curious as everyone else.

"_Could Elizabeth and Christopher Harper please come to Mr. Simpson's office, please?"_

"You have got to be kidding me." Eliza said under her breath knowing that if anyone was not looking at her and whispering about Christopher, they were now.

She felt a large hand on her shoulder and jumped clumsily to the side as if she were a terrified fawn on the side of the highway. She no longer maintained her balance and a hand was now wrapped around her arm pulling her back to feet.

"You are very jumpy today," Christopher whispered. "Come on, they are only going to talk to us about me."

"That's what I am afraid of," she said ducked her head under her hood hoping that it was some sort of invisibility cloak. She could feel the heat on her face and neck meaning only that her face was the exact same red as the banner displaying the head of an the Indian warrior hanging from the ceiling. She knew that her the graceful greeting of her brother had only made her more visible

"It's going to be alright." Christopher said with a weak smile.

Eliza nodded to try to show that she was being supportive but kept her eyes down on the ground so if she threw up again she would not step avoid stepping in it. Then fought like hell to keep the bile from rising because that was one more thing she needed to make her entrance any more dramatic.

"Well, hello Christopher, Elizabeth," Ms. Griffith said with the same voice only a minute earlier had been screeching through the PA system. "Mr. Simpson will be right with you."

She sat behind a counter trying to appear busy to distract her from Christopher's presence. This was something that most people did while in his presence. They did not do this out of politeness but out of the fear of a reanimated corpse. Christopher's appearance seemed to make people even more uncomfortable because he did not look dead. Eliza believed that someone met him on the street it would take them a little while to realize that he is a Zombie. This was not always the case. Quite rapidly he regained his ability to walk and gained back most of his coordination. It took much longer for him to begin to speak again and when he spoke for the first time it made Eliza physically ill. She could not get over the fact that her brother was beginning his whole life over again while she could only see death. She dreamt about his lifeless body every night. Every time a door would open he was always lying on the floor, dead. She avoided him as much as possible and hated his proximity to her now.

"Hey kids," Mr. Simpson said with a bit too much more enthusiasm than Eliza could stand and she have had to fight hard to stop my eyes from rolling.

Mr. Simpson was a round man who always wore short sleeved button up shirts and sweater vest. Students always made fun of his choices in clothing especially around holidays when he would pull from his collection of festive vests. Eliza always wondered how they were supposed to take him seriously with a Santa sweater jingle bells included. She always thought that he appeared and acted more like a host of a children's television show than an authoritative high school principle. This always worked against him and the students took advantage of his cheerful disposition and his desperation to be considered the nice principal.

"Come in and we can talk about a few things before the day begins, and don't worry your homeroom teachers know you are with me."

He looked uncomfortable, like he had a bad case of heart burn, or maybe it was just Christopher's presence. He looked really uncomfortable in Christopher's presence or it could have been a case of heartburn. Eliza quickly sat down in the first available seat and pulled her knees up to her chest. She wanted to make herself small and insignificant in contrast with her brother so she would not have to talk about anything.

"This summer, I know, has been difficult for you and your family," Mr. Simpson began his obviously rehearsed speech. "I hope I can make this year as easy as possible. I am dedicated to making any accommodations that you and your parents see fit.". "

As he was about to continue with his well rehearsed speech there was a light knock on the door right interrupted him and before it swung opened. Obviously it was only a courtesy knock there was no intention of waiting to be invited in.

"Good morning Dr. Hamliton," Mr. Simpson said with a hint of fake surprise. "You are earlier than I expected you."

Dr. Hamliton was a thin man with a very long nose and stern beady eyes. Eliza thought he looked more like Ornithologist than someone called into a principles office to talk to a teenage girl and her zombie brother.

"Good morning Simpson," Dr. Hamliton. "You must be Christopher and Elizabeth. It is a pleasure to meet you."

"Nice to meet you too, Dr. Hamliton," Chris and Eliza mumble in unison.

"I am going to make this quick," Dr. Hamliton began. "I was sent here by the powers that be to deal with the situation that has come to our attention, your situation to be exact, Mr. Harper. It is our responsibility to make sure that you get acclimated to the school setting in your new condition. Since your incident this summer there are many things that have changed which you are already aware of most of these. However, now that you have decided to continue your education I must warn you that there are many hurdles for you to cross. I will be your advocate and will be responsible for your well being while the students become adjusted to this new situation. I must warn you that this is going to be difficult for you and it could be dangerous."

"I know this already," Christopher said slowly making every word sound much more deliberate. "You don't think I know that now that I am dead I have no rights?"

"I wouldn't say that Mr. Harper," Dr. Hamliton said. "You may not officially have real protection, but—"

"Well then what would you say about the lack of any government protection for me?" Christopher said his empty eyes growing in intensity. "People are wasting so much time trying to decide what they should call me and making accommodations that they have forgotten that I should still have rights, and our state government has done nothing."

"We are getting off topic here," Dr. Hamliton said. "I am here to help you. I am one of the very few people who are on your side. I hope that with your principal's assistance we can make this as easy as possible to try to get you back into the swing of things and help your fellow students to understand more of your condition. We believe that by educating the students and answering their questions we may prevent any incident like the ones we have seen in Indianapolis."

"And how do you suggest we do that?" Christopher Chris said looking over at Eliza with skepticism painted all over his face.

"With an assembly today," Dr. Hamliton said with a very proud smile. "We will work on some sensitivity training and getting all the details about you out in the open. I believe that it will take more than just today's assembly, but I assure you that I am going to do anything I can to make things easier on you and your family."

"Yeah this is going to work," Eliza said under her breath.

Christopher smiled back at her and she could see the skepticism still in his grin. She was trying so hard not to hate him for all of this, but with every ne embarrassment it got that much harder.


	3. Educating the Uneducated

Soundtrack

Optimistic--Radiohead

Sick of You--Iggy Pop

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Chapter 2

Educating the Uneducated

"Good morning everybody," Mr. Simpson said enthusiastically. "We have a very special guest today. His name is Dr. Hamliton from Indianapolis, and he has come to our school today to discuss some of the changes we have experienced in our school. I expect each and every one of you will remember to be respectful and try to learn a thing or two from this experience. Please help me in welcoming Dr. Hamliton."

Mr. Simpson stretched his arm out in an overly grandiose gesture of welcome to Dr. Hamliton and walked to his seat in the bleachers directly beside Chris and Eliza in the front row. The whole school was seated in the bleachers like they always did for assemblies; however, instead of looking bored, everyone was on edge and looked like they were facing the firing squad, Eliza thought. Despite the audiences misleading expression she knew the firing squad was in the bleachers and not walking towards the microphone. The atmosphere was tense and hostile and Eliza wondered if Hamliton was oblivious to this fact or just ignoring it as he slowly made his way to the center of the basket ball court. He walked with a sort of defiant grace and maybe even arrogance Eliza noticed. Everyone knew why he was here and no one wanted to be trapped in the gym listening to someone tell them the same theories and ideas that are constantly spewed on the 24 hours news channels. A few teachers clapped out of awkward politeness. The room went silent except for the foot falls of Dr. Hamliton and when he cleared his throat at the microphone Eliza jumped at the unexpected sound.

"Thank you students for taking the time to join me today," he said with an aristocratic rhythm to his voice. "I am a doctor of psychology and have recently begun to specialize in situations much like what your community is dealing with today. I know many of you are probably confused and maybe a bit angry about what has happened to Christopher this summer. It is a tragic story that I feel is not my business to recount for you today; nevertheless, I feel that it is important that we address some of the side effects of that tragedy and how you as a community should deal with this new experience."

A low murmur resonated from the crowd behind her. She was not sure exactly what they were saying but she caught a few of the words like "Zombie lover", "quack", and a few far worse words she did not like to think about. She felt embarrassed for Dr. Hamilton and for her brother. She knew that there were eyes boring holes in the back of her and Chris's head and wished more than anything that should could just run and hide, but there was nowhere to go because sooner or later someone would find her.

"I was hoping that you could be mature during this discussion today. I understand that many of you have anything but fond feelings towards the recent existence of Living Impaired peoples; however these feelings are misplaced fear and misunderstanding. I assure you, there is very little difference between yourself and Christopher here psychologically. Their bodies are mysteriously frozen in time. There are still many questions about living impaired physiology, but I can tell you that even if their hearts no longer beat they are the same hearts as before. They feel the same emotions as each and every one of you feel and your distain for their existence effects them with more power than you could ever imagine. "

The gym broke out in angry murmurs full of even more insults and anger. Dr. Hamliton stood behind the microphone seemingly unfazed.

"Excuse me if I believe that your anger is unjustified, but I believe that the Harper family and I have more to be angry about than the rest of you," Dr. Hamliton continued slightly raising his voice to compete with the crowd. "This town experienced a tragic loss; however, through some mysterious circumstances, I will not begin to speculate about, you have been given a second chance. I myself have experienced this personally and find myself a proud parent of three adopted living impaired children. When these children returned from death they were unwelcomed by their families and terribly abused by their communities. This is the most disturbing part of recent phenomenon. I feel that there is a greater importance for those who have returned. As a community and a nation we must discover those reasons instead of shunning them. Do you have something to say in the back young man? Please stand up and enlighten us to your feelings."

Everyone's heads turned to the top row where Matt, Chris's former best friend and teammate stood. He was laughing yet there was something threatening in the way he crossed his arms over his chest. Eliza could hardly recognize him anymore his face had never looked so hard and tense before. She had thought of him as a second brother before everything changed. He lived two houses down from the Harper's home and always came over when he was a child. Her parents nearly raised him and his parents were always busy with multiple jobs, arguing, or alcohol addiction. After Chris came back his friendship quickly became nothing but hatred. Now he stood in the back row glaring at her and her brother and she was terrified of what he was going to say.

"Not to be disrespectful sir," Matt said bitterly. "But I think you are full of shit."

The gym felt like the air was sucked out of it as everyone inhaled in unison.

"And what is it that makes you feel this way young man?" Dr. Hamliton asked in an almost condescending tone. He was obviously a man who did not like to be argued against.

"How do you expect me—us to believed that reanimated corpses walking the earth is a gift from God and not a curse from hell? You say these Zombies are the same as they were before, but can you actually prove this? I am just not buying this optimistic crap you are trying to sell us. It's unnatural and wrong."

"You make and interesting assertion," Dr. Hamilton said. He paused for a moment and then continued. "I feel that your assertion that these people, like your classmate Christopher, are some evil from hell sent to destroy us is comparable to that of the beliefs of Nazis. With no evidence you blindly throw yourself into the belief and you have the audacity to ask me for proof? I believe I know a great deal more than you about the human mind and I have spent the past two years doing nothing but study and work with the living impaired. I have seen no evidence of demonic possession or presence of a brain eating parasite that you suggest with the disparaging word "Zombie". I suggest you do a little soul searching and some maturing before you try to prove your own agenda in a public forum. Because you are so dangerously close to aligning yourself with some of the groups out there today who are trying to eradicate our world of people like Christopher. It is time for you to accept this new world and embrace it, because the number of living impaired increases daily and more than likely Christopher is not the only one you will ever meet. I have one question for you. Why do you harbor so much disdain for Christopher and other living impaired people? If you can give me a good answer to this question I would like to hear it."

Eliza spent the rest of the day pretending she was invisible. Something she never had to work hard. She has spent the entirety of her life being unintentionally invisible. Living in Chris's incredibly gigantic shadow, she never got much attention. He was always the better student, the star athlete, the good looking one, and the popular one. She was a good student but never an outstanding student. She never caused any trouble at home and rarely argued with her parents, or at least not before he came back. After he came back her relationship with her parents had changed greatly. Sometimes they were dismissive and other times they had a tendency to hover. Deep down Eliza understood what they were going through, but she still had a tendency to act like any other 16 year old. Her family was all that she had now that her few friends had turned their backs on her. Eliza once had a few good friends that were true and loyal, but now the people she trusted the most were against her.

So today blending in with the other students was not difficult since she was alone. That fact alone made her feel sad for Chris. She felt sorry for Chris because it was so much more difficult for him to blend in both during life and after death. She knew it was unfair to always blame him for how her life was turning out, but they were never close. Something she knew was mainly his fault. Now that he was alone he still pushed her away. It was hard to believe that at one time she used to envy him but today she knew he envied her.

Every time Eliza saw him in the hallways people were staring at him or whispering. On her way out of the cafeteria she saw a group of guys yelling at him obviously trying to provoke him into a fight. She wanted to go help him but she also knew if she were to go over there things would only get worse. So she ducked her head down and walked to class.

When final bell rang Eliza nearly ran to the entrance to meet Chris so they could walk home together. If only I hadn't failed my driver's test, she thought as she walked through the growing crowd of students. If only she was able to drive to and from school life would be a bit easier, but who knows what some of these psychopaths would do the Chris's old car.

Eliza found Chris leaning against the windows of the office. As she approached she saw his face visibly relax. Had he been worrying about her?

"Let's get the hell out of her," Chris said with a slight smile.

His eyes slowly scanned the herd people as he pushed off the glass and began towards the door.

"Is everything alright Chris?" Eliza asked.

Chris shifted uncomfortably when Matt and his friends started walking towards them.

"Not really, but it's not a big deal. I just want to go home." Chris said with a strained smile.

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AN:I am very happy to see that there are people reading my story. I feel more motivated knowing some people are enjoying it too. Thank you for reading I hope to hear your thoughts, reactions, criticisms and or suggestions.

Update: My unofficial beta proofed it so it now makes more sense!


	4. This is What We Call Sensitivity

Soundtrack:

Myxomatosis--Radiohead

Reckoner--Radiohead (If you like Radiohead look on YouTube for the Live Basement version of this song! It's amazing. So is Gnarls Barkley's cover!)

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Chapter 3

This is What We Call Sensitivity

"How was your day?" Chris asked as they walked out into the front parking lot of the high school.

"Could have been better," Eliza replied. "What did Matt say to you today?"

Chris stared straight ahead and shrugged. Obviously he had no intentions of sharing with Eliza. He drove her crazy when he did that. He always interrogated her but when she asked a question in return he would only shrug. He always kept his distance from her and that was something that even his undeathing would not change. When they were younger they were very close, but as soon as he became Mr. Basketball he never had much time for her. "Whatever Chris," she said slightly under her breath anticipating a change in subject like always.

"I talked to Dr. Hamliton today," Chris stated casually. "He wants to be our families shrink free of charge or as he put it 'a liaison of sorts with the living impaired community'. Mom and dad already made arrangements to go to his office in the city every other Saturday. Oh, and he's coming over to diner to talk to us more about 'the community'."

That's just fan-frickin'-tastic, Eliza thought to herself. She really just wanted to go home and sit in her room alone and leave of this undead crap behind her.

"Great," Eliza said without a hint of enthusiasm.

"He thinks we should move there," Chris continued ignoring her reply. "He wants to enroll me into a private school for dead kids. It's one of the first in the country and he thinks it would be easier for the family."

"So what does mom and dad want to do?" Eliza asked.

There was a hint of excitement in her voice. She had never lived anywhere but Winamac. Her dad grew up here and the only time he lived anywhere else was when he studied dentistry at IUPUI.

"Dad, of course doesn't want to leave," Chris said. "He has his own practice now and Mom wants to move home."

Home for her mother was Alabama. She never said much about it but Eliza always knew her mother missed the humid heat and felt guilty for leaving her grandmother alone. She came to Indiana on a whim to study art, but stayed after she met her husband.

"What do you want to do?" Eliza asked and turned toward her brother.

Chris looked distracted. He was looking around as though someone was following him and he just could not find them. He guided Eliza down the next turn.

"What's going on?" Eliza asked through her teeth too afraid to move my lips.

Chris did not answer her. He began to walk faster and stared straight ahead. She knew he had seen something behind them and her fear began to spread through her body like ice chilling every cell as it past. She became increasingly aware of several heavy pairs of feet slamming into the ground behind her.

"You're faster than I am," he whispered. "Run home as fast as you can. I don't know what they are up to." His face grew even tenser and she could see his fear in his tense jaw and wide eyes.

"I'm not leaving you alone," she whispered as the panic poured out of her and the words had a distinct high pitched squeak of holding back tears. Her breath became ragged as she allowed the panic to consume her.

"Hey shit head," screamed a voice behind them. The foot falls sped up and she knew there was no way to escape whatever the hunting party had planned. She tried to convince herself that they were only going to make threats or push Chris around but it was Matt. He was never the type to back down. If he put his mind to something he always followed through with it no matter what it was. He was reckless and stupid brave.

Chris stepped between her and the approaching group of guys. She could not help but feel like she was watching a standoff in an old Clint Eastwood movie her dad used to watch all the time. Instead of a fair fight of one on one it was Chris against three guys who were once his best friends and teammates. Matt had brought Blake and Garret with him. They were two of the toughest kids at school. They had the reputation of "roid heads" because of the size and demeanor. These two seemed to want to live up to the stereotypical jock from movies and TV shows.

"Hi Matt," Chris said trying to make his voice casual.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?" Matt asked through his clenched teeth.

"I'm just walking home with my sister."

"I'm not talking about that," Matt answered. "It's not like things weren't bad enough before you tried to off yourself, but you have not right making all of us look like freaks like you."

"Shut the hell up Matt," Eliza yelled at him. "Your family was already bat shit crazy and Chris had nothing to do with that."

She knew as soon as her own words reached her ears she knew she should have kept quiet and let Chris deal with it, but she just could not help herself. She had to fight against her body because her arms wanted to hit and her legs wanted to run home, but she knew the best thing to do was stand with Chris.

"Shut that little bitch up Chris or I will," Matt yelled.

"Don't pretend that she started this," Chris said. "Let her go home and we can finish this."

"We can't do that Chris," Matt said. "She's part of this too."

Blake flanked Matt's right side and Garret moved up to his left.

"Blake, you take care of her," Matt ordered.

Eliza took off running as fast as she could. Her lungs felt like there were going to burst and her head was heavy. The panic made her to lose her balance and she tripped on the gravel on the road and slammed into the ground. She felt fire on the palms of her hands immediately after impact. She tried to push herself back up to continue running but the pressure on her palms pushed little pebbles further into her skin. As soon as she shifted her weight to her knees she became very aware that the denim had been torn away and the grave had created deep tears in her skin. She heard heaving feet hitting the ground and coming closer.

"Where the hell did you think you were going?" Blake's low voice said from above her.

"Blake, leave her the hell alone!" Chris yelled from a distance.

_Thump!_

She heard impact against something soft followed by laughing, horrible insane laughter.

_Whack!_

Another hit. It was much harder. She turned to look back and Chris was doubled over from the impact. She realized that they were beating Chris with something and they were enjoying it.

She tried to get up again. She had no clue what she was going to do but she needed to get to Chris and help him.

She was knocked down again and doubled over in pain. Eliza could no longer breathe and felt completely paralyzed.

"You aren't going anywhere you little bitch."

His shoe struck her in the ribs this time. A pop reverberated in her ears and the pain was unbearable. She struggled against the pain and tried to curl herself into a tight ball to protect her injured rib.

The laughter started again. Her head was swimming and she felt bile rising in her throat. Down the road Chris struggling against the two guys and she continued to hear hits on to his body.

All Eliza could think of was the pain in her side and abdomen and as she tried desperately to focus on the sound of passing cars a block away she felt another impact on her back. The pain seared though her torso and landed on the spot on her rib. She cried out in and tried to stay still and quiet. Everything outside of the pain felt very distant to her. She pain was pulsating out from side. She could no longer hear Chris only echoes of distant laughter that sounded miles away. She tried to focus her eyes on a single pebble to kept herself from passing out.

The shoes of the person who was inflicting all this pain on her appeared in front of her face stepping on the pebble she was focusing on. She watched as one shoe slowly moved away. Little pieced of dirt and rock slowly fell to the ground like a snow globe as it retreated. She found the pebble and began staring again.

This moment was an eternity. She saw beyond the grey color of the dust that covered the rock and began to see the white shiny flacks that sparkled in the sunlight. It had quartz in it.

Her head erupted in pain as if it were split in half. Her left eye faded to black only a second before the right eye faded.

* * *

**AN:As I am posting this I am installing the Sims 3 so there may be an update this weekend or there may not. I was working with a deadline on this one and I think that actually helped me write better. I hope everyone who is reading this enjoys it. And a little warning there are some curse words in this chapter. Anyway leave any comments, critiques, questions, or reviews if you have any I love reading them.**


	5. The Gloaming

AN: Sorry it is so short. I had two pieces that refused to go together like trying to shove two magnets together on the same pole. Anyway, because of this chapter 5 is almost done, so the good news is that as soon as I finish proofreading that it will be up. My unofficial beta will be editing this at work tomorrow so it is sort of half edited at the moment but I needed it to get it out there and move on.

I have and am going to put up songs that influenced the chapters. (I have already posted them on the previous chapters.) I am in a Radiohead rut at the moment but promise to avoid them for at least a few chapters because there is a bit of a shift in the story coming up.

Update: Edited by beta now.

Soundtrack:

"Videotape" by Radiohead

"The Gloaming" by Radiohead

Chapter 4

The Gloaming

Time passed in and out, through Eliza's misty mind. There was nothing coherent, only pieces of thoughts threading themselves through others. She could only see pale colors through the fog. The daylight filtered through her window and bathed the room in an eerie amber glow. It was always too bright. When she closed her eyes she saw vivid blood red. When her eyes were open everything was blurry and distorted as if she was looking through water. The light slowly receded back out the window leaving her in near darkness. A tiny white tear of light crept towards her from under the door and hushed voices began again. Sometimes she felt as if there was another hand hold her own. Other times, there were soft sobs from another room.

Pale blue light slowly began to consume the room again revealing the same familiar setting, her room. She tried fiercely to move, but her limbs were too heavy and refused to listen to her orders. Everything was always quiet and nothing seemed to move in her room except the light.

The doorbell chimed sometimes followed by soft steps would echo from under the door. She always strained her ears to hear what the whispers said but they always sounded less like words and more like hisses and unintelligible sounds. She just wanted to know about Chris.

Every time she felt the hand on her hand she tried to ask the person attached to it, but her throat was too dry and hoarse. Her mind would then wonder on. She had another nagging thought that kept pecking at her. She refused to think it because deep down she knew she just needed hope. Her lungs still moved inside her chest. At times she could hear her own heart beat but nothing felt real. She knew she had made it, but had Chris? Had they exterminated him?

When she was alone, she heard the laughter over and over again. If she could scream she would, but her voice was trapped inside. She felt vulnerable and weak, but she did not know how to ask for help.

Time continued to pass in awkward intervals. She could not always tell what was happening and what she was remembering and what she was dreaming. Every time the silver light spread across the floor her eyes were more able to focus on the litter on the carpet. She still could not understand the voices, but she could always hear the laughter. Always the laughter.

She had dreams of being back on the road. She would see the blood on the tiny pebbles and hear the horrible sounds of Chris's struggle, before being pulled back to her room. She would always return to headaches. She was imprisoned in her own body and no one could help her.

Sometimes she was in an unfamiliar forest. It was dark and wet and she was always running from the laughter. Her body would give out and she would collapse on the forest floor where the leaves where lightly dusted with her blood. There were always screams in the distance and the laughter right above her. The boots always showed up in front of her and she would watch the pebble fall over and over again before being pulled back to the surface, back to her room.

_Thump!_

She felt the echoes of the pain in her side as her body involuntarily jerked.

Whack!

Cold steaks were falling down her check. She reached up to touch her face and recognized tears.

"Sorry," a hushed voice whispered from across the room. "I dropped my book."

Eliza slowly turned herself toward the voice. There was a small blue glow flashing on the floor that almost looked like a blue lightning bug and a large outline in a chair.

"Go back to sleep," the voice whispered again.

She lay in silence. The only sound in the room was her own ragged breath and the turning of pages. Chris was with her. She fell into a restless, but deep sleep.

* * *

AN: I am going to go ahead and pimp my unofficial beta's fic. She's my very close friend and the reason I got into fanfic in the first place. If you are into anime she has a great story for Samurai Champloo called Only in Dreams (rated M for some mature subject matter and language). Look up Brokenwish on my favorite authors if it sounds like your thing, I like it and I have never watched the show!


	6. Go Get Your Gun

Soundtrack:

"Go Get Your Gun" by the Dear Hunter

"The Passenger" by Iggy Pop

"Growing Old is Getting Old" by Silversun Pickups

"Search and Destroy" by Iggy Pop

"Epitaph/March for No Reason/Tomorrow and Tomorrow" by King Crimson (Quite an amazing piece of music)

Chapter 5

Go Get Your Gun

After that week Eliza ran out of pain medication and regained her ability to think clearly and function like a normal human. She still had pain but with a clear head she was more able to work around it. Chris was always sitting silently in her room when she woke up. Sometime his silence sort of creeped Eliza out and she wished he would at least practice breathing so he would be a little more comfortable to be around. Maybe he could one day pass as a living person in public and they would not have to hide, but she knew that it was unfair to think like that.

She had two fractured ribs and a crack in her brow bone. Which explained the never ceasing headaches, but she had no interest in seeing what her face looked like now. She could feel her right eye was still nearly swollen shut, but she could see out of it which meant that she did not receive any permanent damage to her sight. Dr. Roberts came to visit a few times to check on her, but he was always uncomfortable and seemed a little scared being in the Harper house. He worked quickly and never stayed more than 10 minutes. Eliza assumed that he was catching grief from the having some problems with the rest of the town for coming into the house that was forbidden.

Her first few days of awareness seemed to reenergize the house. Her parents moved around more frequently and when she was awake Chris talked constantly. He was eager to recount the heroics of Dr. Hamliton. He had obviously been waiting for a week to retell this story.

"So they had me by the arms like this," Chris was awkwardly trying to reenact the situation with imaginary assailants. "And they were seriously kicking the shit out of me. I kept trying to squirm out of their hold on me but those douche bags were strong and I am not very agile. You were on the ground and I was trying to get over to you because you were in bad shape. The all of the sudden I heard this car horn. They dropped my arms and we all turned around to see this powder blue Buick with the most pissed off old man I have ever seen gunning his engine and heading right for us and I ran."

Chris ran awkwardly across her room running into her bookshelf and knocking about half her books onto the floor.

"Chris!"

"Ooops," Chris said exaggerating his apology. "Anyway, so he nearly ran over those guys and Blake high tailed it out of there like a little bitch. I mean he was screaming like a little girl. Hamilton jumped out of his car like an action movie hero and chased the other two off with a frickin' briefcase! It was so amazing."

Chris grabbed a pillow and started swinging it around like Hamliton must have with his briefcase. Eliza knew he was putting on this show to cheer her up, but there was deep seeded bitterness in his words. She knew this incident had affected him more than he would ever let on, but he was probably so happy to have someone other than adults to talk to that he was willing to do just about anything to keep a conversation from dying or becoming uncomfortable.

"Let's girl talk," Chris said with a hint of smile in his voice as be plopped down on the foot of Eliza's bed with a wide mocking grin.

*****

Eliza rarely left her room. She could not tolerate the light and shut out bright sunlight she tacked a towel over her window. There was something soothing in the way the sunlight filtered through the teal colored towel. Her room felt aquatic and separated from the rest of the world. It also helped with the headaches, which according to the Doctor, would probably be something that would flare up every so often for the rest of her life.

Chris would come up with breakfast in the morning after their parents had returned to work and stay with her until she fell into a restless sleep. Eliza had a feeling that he never left her room, so on nights that she could not sleep she would lay still and pretend she was sleeping so he would not think she was weak. She felt guilty that he held this constant vigil with her since she did not so much as talk to him after he had returned. The guilt made her sick to her stomach. If he was ever hurt by her actions, he never let on. He stayed with her now and acted like a brother should. He always had some sort of story to tell while she ate her breakfast in the darkened room.

"So, did ya hear about the douche bags that kicked our asses?" Chris asked eager to answer his own question nearly hopping up and down on the foot of her bed. "Matt and Garrett got off completely, of course. They are not allowed anywhere near you or our house because they 'instigated' the attack. Blake confessed to everything thinking that somehow he could get off as easy as the other two. Since you're living and all he is in so much trouble. His dad offered to pay all your medical bills so we wouldn't sue. Mom and dad refused, but that guy is going to get it."

"That's crap," Eliza said sitting up too quickly. The sharp pain in her side made her eyes water.

"Did you forget about the whole broken ribs thing?"

Every day it was the same routine. Chris would talk to her the while she ate breakfast then sit in her room until she fell asleep. Sometimes he would talk her ear off and other times he would sit in a chair he had brought up from the living room and read books with a small LED book light.

Their parents went to work every day in the morning and came home every night. Eliza never went down for dinner. Her mother would bring up a plate of food and set it on her dresser so she could eat it when she got hungry. Eliza could always hear the TV in the living room in the evening tuned into local and national news. When Eliza's father went out of town for some sort of dentist's convention in Georgia her mother would visit her room more often. She would ask Eliza and Chris about their how they felt about different news stories she had watched or she would hover over Chris's shoulder and read what he was reading. Chris's annoyed expression made it quite clear to Eliza that he missed his father's presence, because if he were home their mother would be downstairs watching TV and not eaves dropping on his reading selection.

Dr. Hamliton came up from Indianapolis three times a week to tutor Eliza and Chris after they were withdrawn from school. He always brought gifts from his adopted family. Eliza had never met any of them, but they had made plans to go visit his home after she had recovered a bit more. Dr. Hamliton always talked about them as if they were his own children. There were three: Julie, Alex, and Jacob, all living impaired.

Eliza stayed in bed and listened to music. She was never a huge music fan. She liked music and she had a few CDs and her MP3 player, but music was more of a tool of avoidance than any sort of experience. However, after the "altercation" she was sort of stuck with music as her only real source of entertainment. Dr. Hamilton's son Alex sent Eliza his MP3 player so she could listen to some "good music" while she was on the mend. That is how she spent her time. Listening to music she had never even heard of or just never really had never had the urge to listen to. She would find herself getting sucked into a particular artist on some days and just listen to their entire catalog and then the next day move on to something completely different. She kept a note book by her best and made a list of the songs she thought sort of spoke to her mood.

Chris had started to feel ironic, or at least that is what Eliza assumed. His parents had basically given him free reign on the internet with the credit card and he began ordering movies and books. The thing about those movies and books was that they were all about zombies. Not the "living impaired" sort of zombies but the horror film zombies. His favorite books at the time were The Zombie Survival Guide and World War Z. Eliza hated it. Chris would always tell her that she had no sense of humor or justify it as morbid curiosity. If he was not reading books he would sit with his laptop reading news, articles, research, and blogs about living impaired. Whenever he found something interesting he would always read it out loud to Eliza. She tried to return the same enthusiasm for what he was reading, but sometimes the stories were so bad she just sort of tuned him out because they hit too close to home. She had lived through one of those kinds of attacks unlike most of the stories.

*****

September and October had come and gone. Chris and Eliza had been confined to their house for the past two months and were losing their minds. Over the two months they had become very close, like prisoners of war who usually form this weird bond based in shared misery. Eliza's headaches had subsided enough for her to take the towel down from her window when the sun was not too bright. She would sometimes just lie upside down on her bed and stare at the clouds passing by wishing she could be outside. At night when she couldn't sleep she would stare at the stars and watch the moon slowly move past her window. She was never much of an outdoorsy type of person, but by now she would sleep in a tent in her backyard just to get out of the house for a few days. However, the thought of going outside with Matt living so close scared her far too much to venture outside of the confines of her old Victorian style house.

Her mom was home from work more frequently. Being a realtor in Pulaski County had its ups and downs, especially when you have the only living impaired child in the area. She helped home school her kids on the days Dr. Hamliton was not in town. Mrs. Harper left for a week to go to Alabama to see her mother. Eliza wanted to go with her, but her mother told her she needed to stay and keep Chris company and do her school work. Two weeks later her father went on another work related trip. Everyone else could come and go but Eliza and Chris were imprisoned. She swore her house was shrinking every day by a half an inch. She explored the house at night instead of sleeping. She inspected every room trying to find something to occupy her time. The last place she looked was the attic. It used to scare her as a child, but now it was a new world with boxes full of crap for her to investigate.

Chris continued to be consumed by the information he was reading on the internet. He was becoming the computer nerd he never wanted to be leaving comments on forums and blogs. At least he is talking to people like him, Eliza thought kind of dejected. She always laughed at how she got jealous of Chris's internet friends.

The night before Halloween, it snowed. Since she was a child she spent October waiting for the snow and when it finally came Eliza would run outside dance and jump in the falling flakes. She felt the familiar electricity of excitement flow through her body and could not resist the snowfall. She went outside for the first time in months. No amount of fear was going to steal this moment from her.

The snow fell in heavy flakes from the sparsely star speckled sky that looked like stars falling to earth lit only by the weak moonlight. She lay down on the grass and closed her eyes feeling the flakes land on her skin and melt away. The back door opened and shut. She heard heavy feet move towards her.

"Wanna know what the worst part of being dead is?" Chris asked as he sat down in the grass next to her.

"What?"

"You can't feel how damn cold it is outside," He answered laughing. He threw a blanket at Eliza and sat in silence.

"Thanks," she said covering herself with the blanket.

Before she knew it, she had fallen into a peaceful dreamless sleep. There was no laughter; no angry boots. Her mind was blank for the first time.

*****

Halloween was a scary time for any living impaired person and their family. All the news channels were suspecting that across the nation there would be an increase number of "differently biotic hate crimes". This seemed to be the new term for Chris's kind these days. He found the term hilarious.

"I hate that 'differently biotic' crap," Chris said. "I've been reading about how it's the new PC term. It just sounds so silly and clinical."

The living Harpers had no idea how to respond to that, so they just sat in silence. Eliza stared out the window watching the fading sun. She was dreading the possibilities that the night might bring, but she was eager to get it over with. When the sky started to darken Eliza's father put the house in a lockdown state. He closed all the blinds and turned on all the outside lights. He armed his newly installed security system and sat anxiously on the couch. He had turned most of the inside house lights off so that there were no shadows visible to the outside world. He did not want to make a target out of anyone in his house.

"Dad you're so funny," Chris said laughing hysterically but the laugh came out as a loud unnatural sounding croak. "The humans are supposed to lock themselves in the fortress not the other way around."

"I am just being cautious," Mr. Harper responded firmly. "You've seen what kind of sick and twisted things these people can do. I am not taking any risks."

Eliza realized that her father was trying to nonchalantly direct Chris's attention to a gun he was hiding under the cushion of the sofa. Chris's eye grew abnormally large and a slight smirk spread across his face. Eliza stood frozen. She never knew her dad owned a gun or how long he had owned this one. Seeing her father's precautions demonstrated his fear and amplified her own. She never thought of her dad as a tough guy, but he was always level headed; her mother was always the one to overreact. He never overreacted.

"Well, I'm going to my room to count the zombies," Chris said quickly as he retreated from the living room. "Are you coming zombie spotting with me?"

Eliza took a fraction of a second to react and raced up the stairs. Her father was freaking her out. She could not stand the hard look on his face that turned him into an unrecognizable man. She reached the top of the stairs and stood in the dark hallway and felt her way to her brother's room. The street light on the corner of Monticello and Washington was bright enough to cast a harsh yellow light through his drawn blinds. Chris entered his room carrying the chair from Eliza's room. He sat down in the chair in front of the window and opened his blinds.

"I want them to know I am watching," he said answering the confused look she was wearing.

She grabbed his desk chair and sat beside him in front of the window pulling her knees to her chest. Sure enough, there were three scrawny 13 year olds with torn up basketball jerseys and face make-up roaming Monticello Street.

"That's three," Chris said. His face seemed to be torn between a smile and a scowl.

Eliza could not help but wonder what Chris was hiding behind the mask he always wore. She knew he was pissed off at the world, but he always tried to either fight that anger and make it smaller or hide it from everyone else.

"Do you know what's going on with dad?" Eliza asked. "He's been acting like he's lost his mind."

"I know," Chris replied keeping his eyes focused on the street. "There's two more down there"

"And I mean what was up with those 'conferences'. He has never been on a trip like that and then he goes on two in the past few months. It's just weird, ya' know"

"Weird. Hey look a zombie cheerleader."

Eliza followed Chris's finger a group of guys dressed like zombies and in the middle was Angela dressed in a borrowed cheerleader uniform covered in blood.

"That little bitch," Eliza whispered.

Chris sat silently again watching the group of zombies make their way down the street. He realized who was also with Angela and his eyes were narrowed and his expression stern. Eliza felt the same anger. They had both expected to see Matt and Garret participating in the night's zombie parade, but Angela dressed up and running around with those guys made it far worse.

By the end of the night Chris had counted 17 zombies. Most of them were wearing the colors of his old school. Eliza was well aware that this was a personal attack on her family. She was filled with so much anger she did not want to move because she was afraid if she did she may snap and start breaking stuff in Chris's room. Chris mirrored her posture and she wondered if he was staying still for the same reason. They watched as the porch lights went out one by one and groups of people returned home with heavy bags of candy. The TV down stairs turned off, but the outside house lights stayed on.

Everything was quiet and still and in the distance the squeal of tires could be heard. Eliza felt her eyes getting heavy but had no idea if she was actually going to be able to sleep tonight. The anger filled her up and made her hands shake and her heart pound violently against her rib cage.

"Are you alright?" Chris asked. "It sounds like you hearts going to break through your ribs."

She nodded and leaned back in the chair closing her eyes. The peaceful moment was interrupted by a loud crash of broken glass. Chris leaped out of his chair and grabbed Eliza's arm pulling her far away from the window. She crouched on the ground against the far wall listening to the feet pounding on the ground retreating.

"Eliza! Chris! Where are you?" her mother was screaming from downstairs.

Chris grabbed Eliza's arm and pulled her downstairs. At the bottom of the stairs they saw the shatter living room window and their father standing with a brick in his hands.

"What the hell is that dad?" Chris asked.

Mr. Harper ignored him and pulled a piece of paper off the brick. He looked at it for only a second and then passed it to his wife. She read the message and started cry. Not out of sadness, but out of rage.

"I can't do this anymore Allen," she yelled at her husband. "This has gone way too far and we have waited too long. Chris get your stuff together you and I are going to Dr. Hamliton's house until your father can come up with a better plan."

She looked furious with her husband. Eliza had never seen this sort of anger from her mother. Eliza watched her mother throw the piece of paper and storm off to her bedroom most likely to pack. Eliza walked over the broken glass to where the note had fallen. She could feel every cut the glass sliced into her bare feet but she could not feel the pain.

_Next time we will come with fire._

*****

On Eliza's last night living in Indiana she decided to take a walk and say goodbye to the place she had called home for 15 years. The place she loved and that pushed her out, exiling her family 500 miles away. As if the town was saying goodbye to her as well, the streets were empty and the Christmas lights were lit. She pulled her hood up to try to hide the trademark Harper ginger hair and started north on Monticello. Passing by The Best Lil' Video Store, she tried to take in every sight and smell. As much as she hated the town's people, she would miss the buildings and the trees.

The Christmas lights gave the town an innocent look. The colors bounced off the dusting of snow on the ground creating a playful charm. She would miss this part of her home. In the south it rarely snows especially in December. The idea of Christmas without winter coats sickened her. It seemed so unnatural and absurd. As she passed the Marathon she started to feel sentimental and silly at the same time. It was a gas station for crying out loud, she thought, I never got to fill up a car there.

When she reached the courthouse she paused. She loved this building. In the night, it was illuminated by bright spotlights making it look majestic and foreign. It was beautiful, but now that she looked at it; it looked smaller than she remembered it. She remembered how the town would gather for the lighting of the Christmas lights every year. This year she was not there with Angela. The two of them were always mystified by the lights and would stand side by side quietly admiring the beauty. Within every inch of this town, there were memories everywhere. She remembered taking her bike to the library passing the courthouse and turning right. She would stay for hours reading the book jackets and somehow only coming home with one book. She passed the Isis she never saw many movies in there because she preferred the drive-in theater out at Bass Lake. However, she always like the tragedy masks on the yellow background, but she did not know why she did.

Finally she could see St. Peter's church and its little shrine. That was always her favorite thing about Christmas in this town. She walked up the side walk and stood in front of the gaudy colored nativity scene. Its lights were so bright the statues skin looked white while all the other colors looked worn and faded. She stood there staring at these familiar figures and felt a great distance from the person who stood here a year ago. Everything had been destroyed and everything was changing. She never put much thought into how temporal everything was and now she felt the seconds pass. This part of her life was over. She stood torn between her fear and her excitement.

The snow began t fall and she recognized it as her final farewell and walked back home to sleep in her room for the last time.

* * *

**AN: So this is the most epic chapter I have written thus far and man was it a lot of typing and procrastinating. My beta was editing while I wrote so it's all done. Yay! I hope you like the change of direction I'm going in. I am stoked about it and have so many things planned and fun people for Eliza to meet.**

**Thank you for reading and thank you for leaving reviews. I love that people are actually enjoying this story. Please leave reviews they make me happy and my tiny ego happy! They are how I know I am going in the right direction and that I am still doing a good job.**


	7. Fire Pink

**AN: Now with super beta powers.**

**Also, I always find that when I am reading on that setting the space text takes up to 1/2 makes it more readable and easier to read dialogue.**

Soundtrack:

"Battesimo del Fuoco" by the Dear Hunter

"Sister Christian" by Night Ranger

"The Royal We" by The Silversun Pickups

* * *

Chapter 6

Fire Pink

As a child, Eliza would come down to visit her grandmother once a year during spring break, but she had never spent much time in Alabama other than that. She never thought of the state as anything more than her grandma's home. The house was nestled on the side of a mountain surrounded by hundreds of trees, making it almost invisible from the road. However, when Eliza's plane landed, Alabama was not green like Eliza had remembered it. The landscape was littered with big bare sticks that usually signified winter and cold; however, here it only meant that instead of snow there was sunshine and temperatures far too warm for the coat she wore when she boarded the plane in Indianapolis. They arrived in Birmingham a couple days before their furniture because of the poor planning of the move. Eliza and her father stayed in their house for several weeks packing up boxes while her mother and Chris stayed with Dr. Hamliton in Indianapolis. Her mother and father had been planning this move for some time, but hid it from their kids and planned to tell them after Christmas. After Halloween, the plans were kicked into hyper drive and within two weeks they were boarding a borrowed private plane and flying to Alabama. Dr. Hamliton set up their transportation with a friend because Chris has no identification therefore cannot fly on public planes. They stayed with Grandma Stevens for the first few days waiting for their furniture and their parents took daily trips to stores and the house preparing it for habitation.

When the furniture arrived Eliza got to see the house for the first time. Her new house was nestled into a hill. The driveway was steeper than any hill in northern Indiana. From her bedroom window she looked straight out at the road and the steep incline of the yard. She had spent the better half of the day arranging and rearranging her room. At first she tried to make it match her old room but this room's windows and shape was all wrong and the room felt twice the size of her previous one. The walls were beige like the rest of the house, but her bathroom was a shade of pink more akin to the color of Pepto than anything a person over the age of 10 would want on the walls. She made a mental note to get her mother to buy her some paint. She needed color in this room. After her room was set up and the furniture spread too far apart Eliza sat on the foot of her bed. Everything felt so wrong to her. The color was wrong, the light was wrong and the ambient noise outside was way off. Instead of children playing loudly outside she heard only a car stereo and the wheels of a skateboard. She had never had a new bedroom or house for that matter. There was only the one and she had never had to adjust to changes unless they were self imposed like changing the paint on her walls or the linens. This one was too big and too clean. She ripped the covers and pillows off her bed and emptied a couple of drawers on the floor. It did not feel much better, but at least it felt used.

She walked over to her closet to rummage through her cloths. Nothing in her closet seemed appropriate for her new home and looked small and out of place in the large space that was closer to the size of a tiny room than a closet. She was going to have to convince her mom to take her shopping for something new. These clothes reeked of small town and the mousy little girl that was beaten out of her in the streets of Winamac. She was starting over and these clothes did not feel like they belonged to her anymore. For the first time she had a chance to create an identity that did not rely on her brother. The school was so large no one would ever know they were related. She was not ashamed of her brother but wanted to try to meet friends and have them get to know her before she dropped the bomb of "hey want to hear something funny? My brother is dead and goes to school here." There was little chance that they would run into each other much since the school had a separate class for the "Differently Biotic" students.

Eliza was terrified to say the least about returning to school. When she was told they were movie to Birmingham the first thoughts she had were of dogs, fire hoses, and segregated drinking fountains. That concern was not diminished much when her grandma told her about the differently biotic class. It felt like segregation to her or like they were putting them in special ed. She had never met another DB kid besides her brother and always assumed they were all like him. When he first came back it took him a few months to get to the point he is at now, but there was barely a difference between him and any other 17 year old. Dr. Hamliton considered him "high functioning" and tried to explain how rare he truly was. She just never thought about it that way and often wonders if some of them would be comparable to living kids with physical or mental impairments.

Chris seemed to be excited about joining the class and getting to be around kids like him. The southeast had a growing population of DB kids and many of them have migrated to the Birmingham area because the education system has been very supportive. Chris had read the superintendant of the school system's own child is differently biotic and after that he felt that it was his calling to create a school system that was tolerant and willing to educate DB students. There have been fewer incidents in the suburbs of Birmingham than many other states, so it has become sort of a safe haven for them. There had been a few and the students involved were severely punished. One of the more high profile examples was when a group of students tied a DB boy to the flagpole outside of school and threw large stones at him. The boy was reterminated and the students involved were expelled. They were only charged with misdemeanors, but at least it was something.

The night before Chris and Eliza returned to school they went on a walk down their new street, Fire Pink Drive. Since they moved, they had spent most of their time inside. It was something that they had become comfortable with since August. However, the next day they were going to have to deal with large crowds of students and long hours away from home. The walk was like baby steps back into the real world.

At the end of the road they found a small park with swings and picnic tables. It was small and somewhat hidden by a large grouping of trees. Eliza took a seat on one of the swings and Chris took the other.

"Are you nervous?" he asked.

"No not really," she answered.

"I'm terrified," Chris replied honestly. "I have only been around Hamliton's kids and have no idea what the dead kids will be like here. I mean I am going to be stuck with them all day and I just hope they aren't a bunch of boring idiots."

This response made Eliza laugh. She was terrified about things like being accepted or Chris running into people that would treat him like they did at their old school. She never once thought that he would be worried about what kind of people he was going to meet.

"I am actually terrified of having to go to classes and catch up with everyone else," Eliza admitted. "I mean Dr. Hamliton was a good teacher, but I don't know if I am going to get caught up before finals."

"I don't have to take finals," Chris said is a mocking tone.

"I hate you."

Eliza began to swing and tried to imagine what tomorrow would be like. She saw the building when her parents took her to get registered. It was huge. There were more students in Eliza's grade than the whole student body of her last school. The building resembled a cross between a mall and a prison. The walls were tall brick monstrosities and the windows were tiny and the entrance from the bus drop off was block with an enormous gate giving the courtyard the definite feeling of imprisonment. It was an ugly school with ridiculously long hallways. She knew she was going to get lost and wander into the wrong room and make a fool out of herself. She actually envied Chris who only had to worry about going to one room on the first floor two doors down from the office.

"Did you hear that?" Chris whispered.

"What?"

"Shhh. There's something in the woods." Chris got off his swing and headed toward the noise in the woods.

"Chris get away from there," Eliza whispered loudly.

Chris disappeared into the bushes leaving Eliza alone in the creepy playground on her swing. As she was getting off her swing she heard the leaves moving more loudly and rapidly. As she slowly stood up preparing to run from whatever was in the woods she heard a scream. The scream sounded like a girls scream but not quite as high, but it still scared her and she went running at the spot where Chris had disappeared earlier. She made it a couple steps before running into something solid and falling to the ground seconds later a heavy mass landed on her leg.

"What the… who…" said the panicked voice of a teenage boy.

Eliza focused her eyes to see a scrawny dark haired boy lying on the dirt next to her with wide eyes.

"Did you scream?" Eliza asked holding back her laughter.

"No," he answered embarrassed and obviously lying. "There was this big guy who just came out of nowhere. I was in the baseball field just…sitting around and then…I mean he was huge. Did you see him?"

Eliza could not hold back her laughter and the boy looked sort of dejected. Chris came out of the woods laughing to himself.

"I didn't mean to scare you man," Chris said trying to stifle his laughter. "I heard you and thought you were a dog or something."

"Nope, I am not a dog," the boy answered standing up and brushing himself off. "Well, this has been fun. I can't wait to do this again sometime."

"We're sorry," Eliza said. "We didn't mean to laugh at you or scare you."

"It's alright. I just have to go home and reclaim some of my pride is all."

He picked up a skateboard and rode away. Chris looked a little guilty for embarrassing the poor guy, but Eliza could not help but laugh.

* * *

**AN:Sorry for the delay. Life gets in the way sometimes and other times I just tried to get through things too fast making a mess out of things. The good news is that chapter 7 is nearly finished (yay!). Thanks to everyone who has read and/or reviewed. Just knowing people are reading my story makes me happy. This is a pre-beta chapter (she doesn't like to work on the weekends) so hopefully tomorrow that will get done. Anyway, leave and comments, criticisms, and questions.**


	8. Shiny New Kid

AN: This is pre-beta. I will hopefully have that this weekend. Sorry for the extended absence. I just couldn't get the editing of this chapter right and had no inspiration. Thank you for reading.

"No Fun" by Iggy Pop

"Needle in the Camel's Eye" by Brian Eno

Shiny New Kid

Eliza woke up the next morning with a horrible combination of excitement and mind numbing fear. Her stomach was too full of anxiety to even try to stuff a bowl of cereal into it. She stood in front of her closet staring at the small collection of cloths she owned and grabbed her favorite jean skirt, a pair of tights and a hoodie. Deciding on cloths that sort of blended into the crowd on her first day was her plan, so she grabbed a plain grey t-shirt. After she was dressed she went to the living room to wait for the bus. Her mother had offered to drive her to school, but Eliza wanted to do this part on her own. She wanted a chance to get to know people and hopefully make a few friends before she introduced the world to her dead brother.

Across the street the boy from the woods was sitting on the trunk of an old Toyota. He seemed perfectly relaxed unlike Eliza. She watched him retie his shoe laces and check his cell phone never once looking up the road for the bus in complete confidence that he knew the bus's schedule well enough. This boy made her nervous. Not because she was attracted to him, but because he saw her brother and could completely ruin her chances of keeping it a secret. She had to talk to him. If he knew anything about her family, she had to know what he knew and how to work around it. He was her target.

She grabbed her bag and took a deep breath before walking out the front door to wait for the bus and try to get this boy to talk to her. She walked up toward the top of her driveway and sat on the short retaining wall around her mailbox.

"Hey," she shouted at the boy hoping he would respond.

"It's you," he replied looking embarrassed.

"Sorry about knocking you over last night," she replied apologetically. She wanted to get him to say something about her brother. Test him to see if he noticed anything not normal about him.

"Not as sorry as I am about screaming like a little girl," he said with a nervous laugh. "It's always the best way to make an impression. Get scared of a guy walking through the woods scream like a sissy and then run over a girl."

Eliza laughed and was relieved that he had not yet mentioned the fact that the guy in the woods was a dead guy. As much as she loved her brother she hated him at this moment for making her first social interaction so damn awkward and nerve racking.

"What grade are you?" the boy asked.

"I'm a sophomore."

Down the street there was the unmistakable sound of a bus trying to make its way up a steep hill. The boy grabbed his bag and walked over to where Eliza sat. The bus stopped and Eliza followed the neighbor boy up the stairs. He took his seat and offered her the seat next to him.

"Your name is Elizabeth, right?" he asked.

"Yeah, but I go by Eliza."

"Yeah, I'm Daisuke," he said.

Daisuke's friend Levi got on the bus a couple streets down and he spent the rest of the trip talking about 80's hair metal and the video game Rock Band.

They pulled up to the giant school that terrified Eliza to death. Not just the size of it but also the kids. Even beneath their coats Eliza could tell see how tan and thin many of the girls were. They wore obviously expensive clothing, dark tanned skin, perfect body proportions, and perfect hair. In Winamac there were only a select few girls that looked like this, but these girls had equally attractive male counter parts making Eliza feel very short, pale and plain.

"Catch you later," Dasuke said as he waved goodbye.

Eliza felt a bit of relief in the fact that he did not mention anything about her dead brother, but since he was her neighbor she knew she had to keep track of him. She picked up her schedule at the office and talked to the principle about having to catch up before the end up the semester so that she could take the fall semester finals. The idea of having to take exams terrified her until she sat through her first class that seemed to be far behind her advanced placement classes she was enrolled in at her last high school. In her second class she met Sam. He was a tall lanky boy with shaggy sandy blonde hair. His voice was so low he sounded as though he was intentionally trying to lower it an octave. He wore baggy cargo shorts and a Rise Against hoody which made him stand out in comparison to the other guys in the class who were mostly wearing polo shirts, jeans, and New Balances. He did not talk about himself much except to tell her his name was Sam but asked plenty of questions. This was something Eliza had tried to prepare herself for the night before. She knew people would ask questions and she had not decided how to answer the inevitable question.

"You live on Fire Pink drive right?" Sam asked shocking Eliza a bit.

"Yeah," Eliza answered a little apprehensively.

She was surprised that he had already heard about her. She thought that going to a school this big no one would notice the new kid, but I guess that is something that is universal.

"My buddy lives right across the street from your house."

"Does he skateboard and have a thing for 80's hair metal?" Eliza asked.

"That would be Daisuke," Sam answered laughing to himself. Eliza could tell that this was some sort of joke with him and his friend. "What did you do to get sentenced to life in the great state of Alabama?"

There is was the question that she had been dreading. She was torn between the truth and a lie. The truth would be a long explanation exposing her to possible criticism and social banishment.

"My mom wanted to live closer to my grandma," Eliza went with the lie.

The bell rang and Eliza gathered her things and stuffed them into her bag. She had no idea where her next class was but she was not going to pull out her school map, but she had no idea where to find her biology class.

"So what's your next class?" Sam asked before she had to.

"Biology"

"Do you know where to go?"

"Not a clue. I was basically going to wonder the hall until I found it."

Before Sam could tell her a small girl ran up to hug him. She reminded Eliza of a small overexcited puppy. Grace was about the same height as her but thinner. One might describe her as "willowy" if she was not so loud. She had short black hair with a thick red streak in the front.

"Hey this is Grace." Sam said drawing Grace's attention to Eliza.

"Hey," Grace said. "Are you new?"

"Yeah she just moved here from . . ." Sam paused cocking his eyebrow up signaling Eliza to answer Grace's question since he had no idea where she came from.

"Indiana." Eliza said flatly.

"Cool, what's your next class?" Grace asked.

"Biology with Peterson." Eliza answered.

"Thomas is in that class, isn't he?" Graced asked turning to Sam.

"I don't know, maybe." Sam answered turning his attention to someone behind Eliza. "Daisuke, do you have Peterson?"

"Yeah, why?" He answered sounding seriously confused.

"You are going to show my new friend . . . " he did the cocked eyebrow thing again.

"Eliza," she answered.

"Hey," Daisuke said. "I'll show you to class. See you guys at lunch."

Eliza waved goodbye and followed Daisuke to the stairs. He walked with a small hop in his step and his shaggy black hair bounced with each step making it more apparent that he probably cut it himself.

"Do you hate this school already?" he said animatedly.

Eliza listened to him talk about some band he was currently obsessing over the rest of the way to class. When they entered the room he sat down a table and patted the stool next to him.

The teacher began class and made Eliza stand up at her table and give the standard "Hi my name is Eliza Harper. I'm from Indiana. I like music and books" speech that is horribly embarrassing and awkward but over quick enough. He lectured for most of the class then passed out a worksheet for the class to work on with a partner which basically became a interview by Daisuke. However, most of his questions seemed to lead to him talking about himself. She was not sure if Daisuke was nervous or just had a huge ego. The questions continued as he walked her to history even though his was on a different floor. Eliza sat through that class silently as well as English and then it was time for lunch. She was dreading this more than any other time of the day. She had no idea where to sit or if the people she met had the same lunch or if they would want her to sit with them. However, when she entered the cafeteria Grace ran up to her and immediately demanded they sit together. They picked up their food and sat down at a table full of kids by the back windows.

"So, you met Sam and Thomas," she said nodding to Sam and Daisuke. "This is everybody else. Everybody else this is Eliza."

Some of them said their "heys" and others merely looked at her and nodded.

Grace sat down and pulled Eliza into the seat next to her and began talking to Sam about her last class and her teacher she believed to be evil. Eliza sat uncomfortably next to her not sure what she was supposed to be doing.

"I'm Levi," the boy sitting next to Eliza said. "You're the shiny new kid in school huh?"

"I guess so," Eliza replied. She recognized him as Daisuke's friend from the bus.

"I've been there," he said with a crooked smile. "I moved her a year ago from Washington. It's a bit of a culture shock, but it's not too bad until summer."

"What happens in the summer?"

"The heat is going to kill you," Levi replied.

"That's what I hear," Eliza said.

When lunch was over, everyone dispersed to their last period classes. Eliza went to the library for her aid period where she listened to the librarian explain the procedure of checking books in and out. Her last class was art she sat in the back of the room and filled out a packet of worksheets that she was told to study for the final. The bell rang and she gathered her stuff and walked out to the buses. She climbed on her bus and sat with Daisuke and Levi.

"So did they try to bury in homework?" Levi asked.

"Not really," she lied. She had about two weeks of work to do.

"Don't lie," Daisuke said. "We'll come over and help a bit. I mean I have no life so why not do someone else's homework."

Eliza's heart stopped she had to get out of this. They could not come over to her house.

"Not a good idea," Eliza said. "We have barely unpacked and I am a bit sick of my family. How about going to one of your houses?"

"Yeah, we can go to my house," Daisuke said. "But we may not get much school work done. There are too many distractions." Levi and Daisuke laughed a bit and started talking about video games they play and movies they like. Eliza just listened quietly just thankful that she had some friends who did not even know her brother existed and were not going to judge her for his mistakes.


	9. The Bitter Suite

AN—I'm really sorry it has taken me so long to update the story. I am setting a schedule and from now on around the 1st of every month I will be posting a chapter. I may every once in awhile post a second surprise chapter. I have written quite a lot but the old fashioned way of pen and paper but have not felt much like editing. This chapter probably still has its issues but I just needed to get it posted so I can move on with the writing and editing.

Bitter Suite

When Eliza got off the bus Friday afternoon she felt the familiar feeling of loneliness sink in. Daisuke had told her that he would call her later, but she did not know if he meant later today or later this weekend. Later is such a general term and to a girl, like Eliza, so desperate to be anywhere but home it was torture. She had spent so many weekends at home before she moves she could not stand it now that she had friends. Should she call Daisuke later if he did not call? She had never had to call him because the past couple days they have made plans on the way home from school. Since her first day she had spent the past few days at Daisuke's house hanging out with Levi, Sam, and Daisuke. Her hands were sweating and she just felt trapped but also felt really pathetic. She had barely known these guys, but her sanity seemed dependent on them not leaving her alone. Eliza heard the garage door open and Chris race up the basement stairs. She turned on the TV so she did not look like she had been sitting in the living room wallowing and generally being dramatic. Chris walked over and plopped down next to her on the couch.

"I don't think I have ever been so happy it's the weekend," Chris said.

"I thought you liked your class?" Eliza asked.

"I like the people in my class," Chris said. "But saying that I liked my class would sort of be a load of crap. I mean they have spent the past two days teaching us life skills."

"Sounds easy enough."

"_Life _skills," Chris emphasized. "I don't really think they understand what to do with us so they are using the same lessons as they do with the special education students. It's so damn demeaning. Why does a dead kid need to know how to use a stove?"

"Oh," Eliza said. She has been so absorbed in her own life to even really think about how Chris was doing or what he was doing.

They sat in uncomfortable silence on the couch for what felt like an hour before the TV caught both of their attention.

_ "…residents of a Montgomery neighborhood witnessed the house fire and called the local fire department this morning. There were no survivors of the fire. The police discovered that the windows and doors had been nailed shut and are investigating this incident as a possible murder. Neighbors have informed us that there were at least two Differently Biotics living in this house, which has been known as a safe house in the area for orphaned Differently Biotics in the Montgomery area…"_

Eliza sat perfectly silent. It had been awhile since she had paid attention to any news reports and this was the first time she had heard about anything happening in Alabama. Even though it happened about 2 hours drive from her house the fact that this dark cloud that she had thought had been left in Indiana has now followed her to her new home and it gave her a pure sense of helplessness. How long until it was going to be hanging over her house again? How long did she have before they would have to run away again?

She looked up to find Chris already on the phone. His anger was bubbling up to the surface so much that he was stuttering and making the awkward pauses that other DBs did when they talked. She could not take it anymore and grabbed her sweatshirt from the floor and walked out the back door. The storm door slammed behind her making her jump. She could hear Chris's raised voice from inside and it seemed to be getting louder with every word until it abruptly stopped.

The phone in her pocket buzzed.

"Hello," she said.

"What are you doing tonight?" Daisuke's voice came through the phone.

"I don't know anyone but you guys so I guess nothing unless you guys have something planned," Eliza said.

"Alright. Here's the plan," he said. "You are going to walk over to my house and wait for Levi to show up and then we are just going to find somewhere to go."

_ That doesn't sound much like a plan, _Eliza thought. Eliza walked backed into the house and grabbed her purse and wrote a message on the fridge for her parents. She left without saying anything to Chris and headed over to Daisuke's house. She tried to calm her nerves as she walked across the street. She rang the bell and he opened the door less than a second later while he talked on the phone.

"What time does it start?" he said into the phone. "Alright, we'll head over there as soon as Levi gets here. Alright, cool. See you there."

He hung up the phone and wandered to the kitchen. His hair looked like he had either just got up from a nap or he styled his hair like that on purpose.

"Here's the master plan," he said while grabbing a drink out of the fridge and holding it up in a sort of silent offer. "So, Sam said there some show downtown that is supposed to be bad ass."

"Hello my bitches," Levi's voice echoed off the hardwood. "Get in the car I'm starving."

Daisuke took one last giant swallow of his soda and walked in an exaggerated slow speed obviously trying to piss Levi off.

* * * * *

They got off the interstate and Eliza thought that this place was what her parents would call "a bad part of town." Sam stuffed the rest of his hamburger in his mouth as they drove and Daisuke sang loud and off key to the radio. It was sort of weird how one block would be shiny chain restaurants and the next was a condemned apartment building that looked like a castle. They made it to the venue as the sun was going down. The building looked more like a place you would see in a movie that would house squatters and crack heads. The street was all but abandoned except for this small old warehouse turned into a concert venue, a tattoo parlor, and an art supply store. A large group of people were standing in the doors waiting for their friends and smoking cigarettes. Sam was standing with a group of guys Eliza had never met. All of them looked about the same with the messy hair and uniform of t-shirts, hoodies, and jeans.

"Samwise!" Daisuke screamed like a little girl as he ran across the street playing out a dramatic scene for his own amusement.

"Frodo!" Sam yelled back just as dramatic.

"They are such dorks," Levi said laughing.

Eliza looked around for familiar faces; more specifically she looked for Grace. She had hoped Grace would have been here because it was always nice to not be the only girl around.

"Eliza," Sam said. "This is my friend Aaron. Aaron this is the new one."

They exchanged "heys" taking little notice of one another. Eliza was distracted by all the new sights of downtown. She had only driven through the city on the interstate and in Indiana she had only been to Indianapolis with her parents or class trips. Eliza noticed a couple DB kids standing in the crowd. They were not separated from the others but mixed in with everybody else. It sort of made her feel hopeful that when her new friends discovered her brother they may not judge her so harshly. The crowd began to make its way inside.

The building was a large slab of concrete with a roughly constructed stage on one end of a long room surrounded by large speakers. The place looked worn and dirty, and Eliza loved it. As the room became crowded she began to feel her friend's excitement. The first band took the stage and soon the sound of guitars scratched against the walls and the music began signaling the crowd to push forward in a frantic attempt to be closer to the stage or get away from the psycho boy circle that was flailing in the middle. The lights danced off the top of the crowd harshly illuminating the feature of the people around her. It looked like Christmas or maybe just getting pulled over at night. The music was loud and chaotic music and the singer screamed ear splittingly loud. Eliza watched her friends jumping around and the swaying crowd. It was all so foreign to her. She had never been to any sort of concert in her life and had only seen footage on TV from large venues like amphitheaters, arenas and large concert halls. This was better than any of that. There was nothing to distract from the music and the experience. Eliza tried to plant her feet on the ground to stop from being pushed around. She turned toward her Sam to see how he was not getting pushed around as much as her. Eliza noticed Aaron standing next to Sam. She had not paid much attention to him before because of everything around her, but now all of that seemed to melt away and in the blue colored lights she really saw Aaron. His eyes were strikingly light. In the light of the room they looked as though they were glowing. This was contrasted by his tan skin and black hair that fell into unruly curls around his face. _Stop staring,_ she told herself, but it was too late and she was all too aware of his presence now. It was over for her. Any sort of dignity she had before was gone because she knew that eyes like that were going to turn her into a bumbling idiot if anyone expected her to try to carrying on any sort of intelligible conversation. Eliza awkwardly forced herself to face forward while she tried to find any excuse to look left.

"What do you think?" Daisuke yelled into her ear over the noise.

"Of what?" Eliza answered.

"Of this," he answered with a huge grin motioning toward everything around them.

"It's pretty great, right?" a voice over her shoulder yelled. She turned to see Aaron's grinning face.

"Yeah," she said. _Say something else damn it, _she thought to herself, but could not come up with anything.

"Is this your first time here?" Aaron asked.

"Yeah," she said. _Is that it? Really, say something else._ "I like it here. It's great."

"You just moved here, right?" he asked.

"Yeah, from Indiana," she answered.

"After this band," Aaron said with a smile. "My friend Paul is having a party at his house. Do you want to come?"

"Definitely," she said with a smile.

* * * * *

They arrived at Paul's house around ten, Eliza was not sure is she should call home or even what her curfew was. She had never talked about it to her parents and they had not had any sort of discussion about these sorts of rules, so she settled on just following Daisuke's lead. His parents were stricter than her parents so she assumed this was probably the best approach. She walked to the front door surprised to see so many people were already there when she walked in because of how quite it was from the road. She scanned the room for Aaron; she did not know when he was supposed to show up. The anticipation made her stomach feel as though it was full of air. Daisuke followed her closely with Sam and Levi just behind him stopping frequently to talk to almost every person they passed. Eliza felt a little pathetic, not knowing anyone and basically having to hover around the boys. She wished Grace was there so she could have a girl to talk to. She needed to talk to a girl and find out something about Aaron. However, there was no sign of her.

"Hey," said a soft voice from beside her.

A cold hand touched her elbow making her skin feel both hot and cold and tingly. Eliza turned around startled by the contact. It was Aaron and he was smiling at her reaction. Obviously he was amused her spaz attack.

"Want a drink?" he asked holding his cup up as a visual aid.

"I'm good," she said.

"Have you seen Paul?" he asked.

"No, I don't even know Paul."

He laughed and Eliza laughed a little too, awkwardly. His laugh was so quiet but so sincere. Eliza could not help but smile as she stood with him and looked at his crooked smile and his intense eyes. As soon as Aaron came around, she could no longer remember were Sam, Levi, and Daisuke were. It was as if Aaron was all that existed in the room.

"Hey Paul," Aaron yelled to someone behind Eliza. "Come meet the new girl who has been stealing out boys from us lately."

Eliza turned around and saw Paul. She felt like she had lost her breath. He was dead, but he was not as lucky as her brother. Half his face looked like it belonged to a guy who was once thought of as attractive, but the other side had been left disfigured by a huge cut from his mouth to his ear leaving that side looking paralyzed. This cut had obviously been sewn shut by someone with very little skill with a needle and thread, probably himself. His left arm had large patches of missing flesh. It looked as though he had gotten into a fight with a belt sander and lost.

"I'm Paul," he said with half his mouth and extending a gloved hand to Eliza. "You are Eliza, right?"

"Hi," she said with a nod. "Yeah, I'm Eliza."

She tried to conceal her shock, assuming he was probably self-conscious of these obvious marks of death. She tried to put on sincere smile on, but she noticed a familiar head of hair over his shoulder, hair that was the identical shade of her own. He turned around and Eliza staring into the eyes of her dead brother. She was frozen.

"Are you alright?" Paul asked.

"Oh . . . Yeah, I'm fine," she stuttered.

"You look a bit pale," Paul said.

"No, I'm fine. I'm going to go. Get a drink or something."

"Eliza," Aaron called after her.

Eliza walked quickly in the opposite direction. She ducked into the kitchen. Sam and Grace were standing by the counter talked to people Eliza had never met.

"Where's Daisuke?" she asked Sam. Her voice was thick with anxiety.

"I don't know. Are you OK?" Sam asked quietly to avoid drawing attention; Eliza liked that about him.

"Not really," she said in a near whisper.

She felt like everything was crumbling around her and now she was trapped in the house with a time bomb and her heart was ticking away the seconds until detonation. Grace grabbed her hand and pulled her outside to the back porch sensing how close she was to a meltdown.

"You look like you could use a drink," she said handing Eliza a cup.

"I just want to leave," Eliza said.

"What's wrong?" Grace asked.

"Everything," Eliza said trying to hold herself together. "And nothing."

The back door opened and slammed shut.

"I need to talk to you," Aaron said in an angry whisper. "Now."

"Not now Aaron," Grace said. "Leave her alone."

"You stay out of this," Aaron said. "This is between your friend and me."

"Can't you see she's a little busy?" Grace asked.

Eliza had no idea what she did to Aaron to make him so mad at her. She had thought they were getting along but now he was acting like she killed his puppy or something.

"It's fine Grace," Eliza reassured her.

Grace gave Aaron a glare and went into the house but stayed in the kitchen by the window. It made Eliza feel better to have someone who was trying to protect her from whatever she had done.

"How dare you," he immediately began as soon as the door shut behind Grace. "I thought you were going to be cool with this. You come to Paul's house and when you find out he's a dead kid you just stare at him in utter terror like he's going to eat your brain. Then you run off. This is why he hates bringing in new people, but I didn't think about it. I should have considered you were going to be like this."

"It's not your fault," Eliza said. "It wasn't like that, I swear."

"It wasn't?" he said. "That's what it really looked like to me. I understand the initial shock, but if you only knew what he has gone through you would never look at someone like that again."

"This has absolutely nothing to do with Paul," she said finding her voice. "And it has nothing to do with you."

"Well," he said. "I want you to explain. If this was nothing to do with Paul, why did you treat him like that?"

"Because I am a bitch," she said. "And a liar, but this has nothing to do with Paul!"

"Then what?" he asked.

"I've been lying to everyone who is has been so damn nice to me," she said through tears. "Because I am terrified they will find out about my brother and hate me like I hated him. Like they hated me when they put me in the hospital and nearly kill us. They made us move and wanted us all dead, or in my brother's case, dead again."

"Your brother," Aaron asked. "Is he dead like Paul?"

"Yes," she answered. "He tried to die, but failed. I found him before he came back. I had to find my dead brother and mourn him, and for what?"

She was silenced by her uncontrollable sobs. She was embarrassed but she also felt relieved. If he did not hate dead people, then he would not hate her because of her brother. Aaron grabbed her into a hug allowing her to stain his shirt with her tears. She felt ridiculous; she wished he was anyone else right now. He kept holding her and smoothing her hair.

"I'm guessing your brother is Harper," he said.

She nodded into his chest. His hand moved slowly down the line of her jaw. Then to her chin. He lifted her face up. It took her a second to realize that his lips were on her own. She wanted him wanted him to kiss her, but not now. She was having her first kiss while she cried over her dead brother. Why did everything always have to come back to him?

"Wait," she said pulling away from him. "What are you doing?"

"This," he said kissing her again.

"What are you doing?" she said moving completely away. "I just told you the worst things that have ever happened to me and you think this is what you should do?"

Eliza moved towards the door.

"Wait," he said. "I didn't mean it like that."

She went inside shutting the door behind her. Her eyes quickly found the horror stricken eyes of Daisuke standing in the middle of the kitchen with two cups in his hands.


End file.
